Sir - I appreciate that when the Settle Festival was mooted 12 months ago it was inadequately planned and would probably have ended up in a mess.

However, now the health and safety, security, insurance and other aspects have been covered and approved by the relevant authorities there are no valid reasons to oppose the project. I believe all the realistic objections have been addressed and that the remaining killjoys are stuck in a time-warp of nimbyism.

The event is self-contained and the only major impact on local villages will be an elevated level of traffic over the three days. The surrounding hotels may see a boost in the week preceding the event as those setting-up will need refreshment and a place to stay - this can only be good for local business. There is no need for the festival-goers to leave the site because, in addition to the music concerts etc, all their other needs (camping, eating, refreshments) are catered for within the boundaries of the event.

We placed a petition in our bar on January 11 and 12 asking for support for the festival. We collected 130 or so signatures. Many were from the Rathmell and Wigglesworth area where the remaining objectors live.

The objectors do not represent opinion locally, but have the money and determination to pursue their cause and are making a noise out of all proportion to their collective size.

This is an event which most people in the area are desperate to see proceed and succeed. Settle and district is reliant on tourism and is in need of a boost - this will put Settle "on the map" for a large number of people who otherwise would never visit the area.

There will be numerous long-term benefits to the community from the profits filtering back into the local economy as well as increased tourist numbers in the future providing opportunities for employment for local people.

It may even become an annual event on the scale of the highly successful Grassington Festival.

Robert Ingham, Thirteen Café Bar, Settle

Festival benefits...2

Sir - I write in relation to the Settle Festival, hopefully soon to take place!

It appears that when people hear the word "festival" a vivid image of what they perceive a festival to be springs to mind. It is more often than not people who have never attended a festival that have this bias.

A festival to me (and most of my fellow hippies) is all about having time out from the "rat race", meeting up with like-minded people who enjoy chatting to total strangers knowing they'll chat back, sharing life journeys with people you've never met and listening to music outdoors which is an experience all of its own.

Watching the sun go down with a warm contented feeling, knowing that work, life, bills and all the other stress it can throw at you are safely tucked away the other side of the weekend.

To the people objecting to the family-orientated festival I say this: come along, see it for yourself, experience the friendly nature of people who attend this type of gathering. I guarantee you'll be planning your next one before the weekend is over.

Sam Taylor, social worker, Western Avenue, Keighley

Skyline view

Sir - On reading the report of the wind farm presentation by EnergieKontor to Craven District Council, I am perplexed by the part where Mr Atkinson showed a view of the site from Malham Cove on which the proposed turbines were superimposed, for he then said that they would not be seen above the skyline.

What quite does this mean? That they cannot be seen at all or that they would be seen but only below the skyline? If the former, how do you superimpose onto a photograph something which you cannot see? If the latter, does that make them alright?

At some 426 feet high, they would be less than 100 feet smaller than Blackpool Tower and 100 feet higher than the ones just erected outside Harrogate, so it is clear that they would be extremely visible from a whole range of favoured and much-used beauty spots, all of which are higher than the proposed site and would therefore look down on them; so the fact that from Malham Cove the view of them may be "limited" seems of dubious importance.

Anne Henderson, Kelber, Coniston Cold

Threats to pubs

Sir - I agree with recent correspondents that the smoking ban is only a minor factor in the worrying decline in pub usage.

There are three far more important inter-linked factors: 1) Most big national pub companies seem to have little or no interest in the importance of their premises as centres of the local community - to them the pubs are merely property assets and if maximising their profits means selling a pub for conversion to housing, then so be it. These companies exert a stranglehold on tenants by charging exorbitant and ever-increasing rents and by contracting them to buy their beer only through that company, at ridiculous prices and with very limited choice of brands.

2) Very cheap bottled and canned beer is available in supermarkets. This, together with the illegal sale of cheap "bootlegged" beer from the continent, is causing immeasurable damage to the pub trade and fuelling the "binge drinking" culture among young people.

3) The Government refuses to lower the tax on alcoholic drinks - despite incessant lobbying by CAMRA, the Licensed Victuallers' Associations and other bodies - to a level on a par with that of our European neighbours. This, of course, also encourages illegal "bootlegging".

CAMRA research suggests that, on average, 56 pubs are closing every month in the UK. So far this year in Skipton we have lost the Royal Oak, although a new tenant is being sought. I have it on good authority that several other pubs in the town are struggling financially.

If we are not to lose our unique and historic pub culture, urgent action is required on the above three fronts.

In order to try to encourage increased pub patronage at a traditionally quiet time of the year, CAMRA has designated the third week in February as "Community Pubs Week" and the local Keighley and Craven branch has arranged a number of fun events in conjunction with local licensees.

Andy Grant, Press and publicity officer, Keighley and Craven CAMRA, Granville Street, Skipton

Crash witness

Sir - I was intrigued by Granada TV's "Locks and Quays' programme on Thursday January 24, and very much so by the monument to the Second World War Polish airmen who died in a plane crash near the canal at Bradley which Jim Hartley organised. I am coming to look at it very soon. Well done Mr Hartley.

I drove a fruit and veg wagon for A Bentley and Sons, a wholesale merchant in Colne, and I delivered six days a week to Skipton and district.

On September 23, 1943, I was ready to pull in at Louise's transport café with a consignment of potatoes when, along with my helper, a Mr Bobby Townsend of Colne, we saw the plane crash into the trees and canal embankment. The plane caught fire and we could see a leg and an arm sticking out.

We rushed to the plane thinking we may be able to rescue someone but, as we were almost up to it, the fire exploded and the heat drove us back. Then we wondered if any bombs could have been aboard and stood well back just in case.

More people arrived and a few transport wagons stopped, but there was nothing anyone could do.

Louise's Café was well patronised by the wagon drivers, but there were very few cars. Food was rationed, but somehow the café seemed to have unlimited supplies of Spam, along with egg and chips and sausage and chips - very little else except bread and butter and pint pots of tea.

Mr Townsend, along with Tommy Bailey who also helped me at times, and myself are the only three former "Bentley's" employees still alive and we all remember the incident well.

Chris Fawcett, Standroyd Drive, Colne

Jerry Croft solution

Sir - Craven District Council has had two years' opportunity during the building operations at Jerry Croft to work out a method of separating cars and buses from pedestrians and has failed to do so.

Most strangers, for want of information, walk down the middle or both edges of the road wondering why they should give way to cars on what they consider a pedestrian way.

Now the council is calling in the road people, who will naturally advocate humps and/or speed cushions as a solution to mixing cars and people. Presumably any disabled people in cars, already badly shaken up on the rough setts at the entrance, will be given a further jolting on the speed cushions before arriving at their reward of an extra allocation of disabled spaces.

If pedestrians were separated from cars there would be no need of traffic calming. There is a pavement starting on the right-hand side and continuing past M&S with a discontinuity caused by the Red Lion outbuilding in the middle. It would be a far superior solution to fore-shorten this building to give a continuous path which could be protected by a safety fence from traffic.

This might well cost less than roadworks and give a far safer and superior solution. Cars and people never did mix well!

D O Boden, chartered engineer, Regent Crescent, Skipton

Right way

Sir - Liz Robinson complains that the proposed one-way system along Cross Street will be in the wrong direction as it is the opposite way to that which most people use. I initially had the same reaction but, instead of complaining, I asked North Yorkshire County Council for an explanation.

The answer is very simple - it is deliberate, to limit the number of people using the road.

Although it will slightly inconvenience some of us, it will greatly help those who live on the road. It is, after all, a narrow residential street not designed for large numbers of cars. To alleviate the problems at the Craven Street/Keighley Road junction there will be traffic lights.

Richard Tomlinson, Badger Gate, Threshfield

Sheep please

Sir - I was pleased to note Mr Lovell's letter (Craven Herald, February 1) regarding the comments from Coun Paul English about many fields round Skipton only having five or six sheep in them and not much employment.

Does Coun English not realise that farming is one of Craven's major industries and supports very many jobs? These same sheep keep those fields tidy and contribute to the landscape, which in turn draws great numbers of tourists to the area, which also supports very many jobs.

If Coun English succeeds in his apparent ambition to cover every blade of grass with houses and buildings, will those same tourists turn up to see them? I think we know the answer.

I also feel that the wet weather and floods of the last few months has shown that many of these fields are totally unsuitable for any form of building, a point that all planners would do well to note.

Frances Sample, Midland Terrace, Hellifield

Yes to Yellow!

Sir - Regarding John Sheard's recent article about Yellow Pages and whether anybody uses them. I advertised in them for the first time this year (January 2008) and judging by the response, almost from the day of delivery, it would appear quite a lot of people do use them!

Barry Nuttall, Chauffeur Driven Classic Car Hire, Sawley Street, Skipton

9:01am Friday 8th February 2008

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